Action Comics #1081 came out last week ending the weekly run this book has had over the last three months. That means the Mariko Tamaki Supergirl back-up also comes to an end.
I wish I had positive things to say about this story. But I don't. I am not even sure if I could tell you what it was about. I can definitively say it did not have a satisfactory ending. Never have I read a story where so little happened over so long a time. Worst of all, Supergirl isn't even a star in her own story. She fails time and again.
Was there a theme to this tale? Some subtext I am missing? Some epiphany that should have struck me? If there was, I didn't recognize it.
12 issues. 10 pages an issue. 120 pages. That's a 6 issue mini-series! Think of any effective mini-series you have read and compare it to this mess.
As always, Skye Patridge's art is beautiful. I can only hope we see more of her work later.
I try to be positive about all comics. But this was a mess. And as a Supergirl fan that makes me a little discouraged. Because who would read this story and want to read more Kara adventures.
On to details.
We are reminded that 'Fear' wanted Supergrl to kill her.
You might remember that 'Rage' and 'Fear' turned out to be two halves of one being. In the past when they merged, planetary destruction happened. That is why the 'Fear' side was imprisoned to begin with.
Last issue, Supergirl told 'Fear' that she could take control of the merged being. So know they are merged and no destruction happens.
We know almost nothing of these beings How many planets did they destroy? Are they immortal?
But mostly I am sitting there wondering why 'Fear' didn't try wresting control earlier if it was always that simple.
Lastly, is this some sort of trans analogy. 'Fear' and 'Revenge' were female and male. This being is an 'us', is called 'them' later. If this was supposed to be a story about people needing to accept who they are so they aren't destructive, I can think of less convoluted ways of telling it.
But now the merged being feels 'saved'.
But somehow Supergirl is able to determine the sentence of this being. And she says it is a life of reading comfortably, learning what it means 'to destroy a world'.
So somehow Supergirl gets to overrule a galactic tribunal on the appropriate punishment? Somehow a life of leisurely reading is appropriate for someone who has destroyed planets? Killed billions?
But more importantly, what was Superman's mission for Supergirl? Did he know of this duality of the being Kara was escorting? Did he think this would happen? Was 'the fate of the universe' really in the balance here?
Somehow the court decides to accept Kara's decision of the sentence of the being.
But she has to return the tools she was given for the mission. I don't recall her ever being given something like this in story. What was the tool? Why the pinkish eye flash?
I am lost.
I am lost.
Despite the whole opening chapter about how this trip was so dangerous that John Henry Irons wasn't sure his ship would be able to make a return trip, without a mention of how, Kara is home.
She is talking to 'Paige' about the mission. Power Girl wonders if Supergirl asked Superman why she was needed for the mission.
Kara answers 'no'.
That might have been a good scene to end this story on, Superman explaining himself, perhaps filling in some of the story holes. But we don't get that.
Instead, Kara says it is because she survived Krypton. And so she knows out of pain can come something greater.
Ok ...
Almost any super-hero with a tragic backstory could fit the bill. One of my complaints about this story is that if you lifted Supergirl out of it and put in any other character it would work.
Starfire is forced into slavery and tortured by aliens and has to flee her world.
Power Girl has had her own origin problems and difficulties with loss.
Raven's father is the devil.
And so on ... and so on ...
Anyone could have been there.
Please DC. Do not let Mariko Tamaki write any more Supergirl. She doesn't understand the character.
Overall grade: D-
7 comments:
Great summation, Anj, this is one of the biggest wastes of time and money I’ve ever come across. The best I can say is that it was a good showcase for Patridge, who got better across the weeks. The only thing that made me smile was the blurb about Supergirl having more ‘Daring’ adventures soon, but please God, let them not involve Tamaki.
You know who would have been a better fit for this? The Linda Danvers/Earth Angel of Fire-era Supergirl. She was certainly a merged being and one of those halves was evil to start with. Linda would have understood.
I thought it started out as an interesting story but it quickly spiraled away into total gibberish. I doubt there's much point trying to make sense of the plot or analyze the characters. I don't believe there's anything there to be revealed. It's possible the creators may know what it was all about but if so they certainly didn't allow any of that information to seep onto the printed page.
I think that asking what the story was about is the wrong question anyway. I'd be more interested in knowing how it came to be published in the form we saw at all. I would have thought any editor who was payibng attention would have asked all the questions you were asking long before the story ever saw print and would have expected re-writes accordingly.
What's the editing process at DC these days anyway? Is there still any kind of editorial revision or does the script just get accepted as-is? If this story really did go through any kind of editorial supervision it suggests an entirely different framework has to be in place than I'd have expected. Clearly telling stories that make objective sense to a general readership isn't a criterion here but maybe that's no longer the goal?
That was an interesting and even persuasive idea, that this was an allegory. Hadn't occurred to me, but I would suggest perhaps non-binary rather than trans.
I liked it less than you, if that's possible. The art did it no favors, actually, and I didn't care for Patridge's sparse and sketchy art. If we were supposed to ever know what the ineffective red eyes - shown over and over - were supposed to mean, the art didn't show it. If Supergirl was ever given a tool to use, we didn't see that and got no explanation, and I don't even recognize what Supergirl handed back or what its purpose was. (Whatever it was, was no more effective than anything else Supergirl tried.) Artists and writers often don't collaborate very closely even on monthly, let alone weekly, comics - the artists just do what they can with what they've given, and some scripts are more specific than others.
I think the whistling, yawning robot must actually be the new judge, not Supergirl, as it's the only thing drawn, though the judge is repeatedly referred to as a "he" (not an "it"). The court suggests Supergirl herself did pass sentence, though, so - what a surprise, the story isn't clear. Maybe Supergirl is referring to herself as "he" now - something implied, or perhaps a vestige of some direction the story was originally supposed to go. I thought SG was being drawn in an increasingly masculine way prior to the Dan Mora redesign with the jacket. Bernard Chang commented that he was directed to redraw something in Monkey Prince to shorten her hair. Perhaps it's my imagination. Or perhaps DC, like so many companies right now, is pulling back from DEI initiatives. Tamaki is a writer you'd ask to come up with a story with diverse characters.
The court now doesn't seem to know what the task was, though everyone previously knew it was to convey the prisoner to a second court to pass sentence. Who assigned the new judge? Supergirl? Ridiculous. If true - why did she have to convey the prisoner to any particular coordinates? Wasn't there supposed to be another court or judge present there?
I don't know if it's the worst writing at DC we've seen lately - there's been some competition. It's possible that Leah Williams' work on Power Girl is better than this story was, and her writing of PG is deplorable. But this is in the running.
I wonder if the editors read the reviews. If so, they are probably impressed by the 9.0s and ignore the rest. Most the 9's were about the main story - half the reviews make no mention of the backup. They don't want to tell the truth and jeopardize their free review copies.
T.N.
Thanks for all the comments.
Linda/Matrix in this story would have worked better.
Yes, non-binary makes more sense.
Yes, how did this get made.
Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow was a complete betrayal of Supergirl, but it had a viewpoint, a viewpoint I find repellant but a viewpoint all the same. This is...hokum, one long shaggy dog story, a 12 part nonsequitur...the vituperation, could go on, but the year is over and I am exhausted with a Supergirl who is written by yammering fools. Happy New Year The Worst is Yet to Come. JF
DC definitely needs a Brevoort type to rein in bad editorial decisions with cloning Waid repeatedly and having him run teh entire line while writing half of it.
And is it safe to say that the person saying the Power Girl writing as better than this not read the end of the Ejecta (ew) story? The two are tied...
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